Gentleness Activities

Let your gentleness be seen by all.  Phil 4:5

We have been (haphazardly) working on gentleness in September/October.  Today I wanted to do an activity with the boys that showed them what exactly gentleness is.  I was planning to do a rubbing of some leaves or an onion bag and show them that if you did it gently it would work but if you were rough and scribbled hard it wouldn't work.  However, when I tried it myself to check it actually worked better if you did it harder!!  Lucky I checked before showing them!!

So I needed a different activity.  A quick internet search and I came up with these.

We did a Banana Relays just before morning tea and the idea is that you have to be gentle with the 'baton' because its about to be your morning tea.  We don't want to eat mushed banana!!  This became a little more real when I peeled the banana before the race.

We then sat at the table and while they were eating, I explained that when we are gentle sometimes it means being slow and careful.  So we did some Spaghetti Threading.  Each get a couple bits of uncooked spaghetti and then they thread buttons on to it.  You need to be really gentle so the spaghetti doesn't break.  Also great for fine motor skills.  To make it a little easier for each of them, I stuck the spaghetti into a piece of fruit.  That way the buttons stayed on.

I love these pictures - Jai completely absorbed and concentrating and Isaiah's joy as he watches the button spin its way down to the bottom.